AfterEllen.com Huddle: Our favorite holiday scenes

Do you need a little Christmas, right this very minute? Or maybe you’re celebrating Hanukkah. Either way, it’s time to bring out the good old holiday films and special TV episodes that make you feel cheery, teary or charitable. Everyone has one they love, so let’s share, just in case we’ve missed out on what could be a new favorite.

Courtney Gillette: If there’s any holiday special I’m actually gonna sit my cynical self down to watch, it’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The original 1966 animated version, mind you, not the live action disaster that went down with Jim Carey in 2000. Because, really, I sympathize with the Grinch as much as I sympathize with the Whos of Whoville.

When Christmas and holiday stuff starts crowding the aisles, like, the minute I take off my Halloween costume, I think the Grinch might be on to something: that awful, wonderful, awful idea. But then! Then I watch this special for its full twenty two minutes, and the Whos, man. The Whos are a good people. You can’t steal Christmas from them! They are Christmas!

And when the Grinch is standing on that hill, and they show how his heart grows three sizes and bursts right out of the little gold x-ray wand box? Pass me the tissues and give me a Santa hat. Also: The Whos look like the kind of people who would be super cool to the gays. Gay marriage? Adopt kids? Of course! Here’s a jing tingler and a slu slumker to go with your civil rights. Whoville = love.

Dorothy Snarker: By now, I’m assuming you’ve all heard of the most famous reindeer of all. Sure, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a very shiny nose, but what he and his classic TV special really had was the quintessential underdog story. First aired in 1964, the holiday show has become an annual tradition in countless households. What makes it stand out, besides its signature stop-motion animation, is its championing of the misfit. A reindeer with a red nose and speech impediment? An impeccably coifed elf who wants to be a dentist? An entire island of lonely, abandoned misfit toys? How could the little gay kid in all of us not relate?

Each year I look forward to singing along to “We’re a Couple of Misfits.” I’ve been known to clap when all the misfit toys make it onto Santa’s sleigh and find happy homes. And I rejoice when Hermey finally got to open his dental office (p.s. Hermey is so gay. So gay.) Though, one thing continues to perplex me even after all these years. What the hell was wrong with the doll on the Island of the Misfit Toys?